When Should You Change Estate Agents? [Top 5 Signs & Best Time to Switch]

It’s very easy to lose faith in your estate agent when things start to stall with your home sale. You might have been promised the world when you signed up, only to have zero viewings and radio silence a month later.

So, when should you change estate agents?

You should seriously consider changing your estate agent if you’ve not made any progress with your home sale in the first few months on market. Poor marketing, a lack of communication & proactivity, and having no similar properties to yours on their books are some tell-tale signs that you should switch.

Warning! Before you make any decisions, you should always check your contract for hidden termination fees or tie-in periods.

In this article, we reveal how to decide when to change agents and when you might actually want to keep your current agent on your side.

If you’re considering switching agents, now might be a good time to explore alternative selling methods too. You can take our free quiz to discover your optimal selling method.

Click the button below to get started.

1. When should you change estate agents?

Although selling with an estate agent will get you the best price for your property, it’s also the slowest way to sell your house.

According to Zoopla, the average estate agent sale takes nearly 6 months to complete!

However, with a good local estate agent on your side, there’s no reason why your sale should take this long.

We’ve helped thousands of homeowners with their property sales and bought and sold nearly 150 properties personally. This means we’ve dealt with our fair share of estate agents over the years!

Over that time, we’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge on what makes a good and bad estate agent. Here are the top 5 signs you should change your estate agent:

Reason #1: Poor marketing

We cannot stress enough how important is it to have high-quality, professional photos and a floorplan for your property listing. (Personally, we think videos are less important.)

The quality of the marketing photos will directly affect the number of people that click into your listing and arrange a viewing.

You don’t want your property to just be another listing buyers scroll past!

We’ve seen some truly shocking marketing photos in the past on Rightmove, like the one below…

Find your current agent’s listing on Rightmove and ask yourself the following questions:

1. The first picture on the listing is by far the most important. Does it look appealing?
2. Were you told to tidy and declutter the space before the marketing photos were taken?
3. Are the photos clear, light, do they show off the space well, and show both the exterior and interior of the property?
4. Does the listing include a detailed floorplan?
5. Is the description accurate and does it mention all the property’s key features and selling points?

If the answer is no, you should seriously consider changing estate agents. If your agent can’t get the basics right, that’s a red flag!

Top tip: Have a scroll through listings within a mile of your property on Rightmove and get a feel for what a good quality listing should look like. How does your listing compare to the competition?

Reason #2: Not conducting viewings well

You should also consider changing estate agents if the property viewings aren’t going well.

Some tell-tale signs your agent is not conducting viewings well are:

• Disorganised. We’ve known agents turn up to a viewing without a set of keys for the property! Good agents will confirm viewing arrangements with buyers in the run up to the viewing, and usually on the day to ensure they show up. They should also always be on time!
• No rush in arranging viewings. A good agent will know how important momentum is to a successful home sale. They should be trying to arrange viewings as quickly as possible and not leave buyers waiting!
• Lacking knowledge of your property. The viewing is the perfect time for the agent to really sell your property’s potential to a prospective buyer. They should have asked you lots of questions about why you love living at your property prior to conducting any viewings. They should also know your property’s key features so they can answer any questions a prospective buyer might have.
• No offers. This could indicate your agent is bringing round the wrong types of buyers as they don’t understand your property’s target market. In our experience, you should expect to get around one offer for every seven viewings. We’ve seen this rough guide hold true from a thousand plus sales over the last 15 years.

Reason #3: Lack of communication

A good estate agent won’t leave you in the dark and force you to chase them for updates. If this is you, it might be time to start thinking about changing your agent…

Unfortunately, many estate agents are still very poor at communicating with their customers.

A lack of communication can have serious consequences and cause massive delays. Even worse, it can single-handedly kill a sale, even when nothing else is wrong.  

Open and honest communication between you and your agent is vital if you want to achieve a smooth sale.

Related: You can read our tips on how to choose the best agent in our article “How To Sell Your House Fast for the Best Price: My 9 Top Tips!”

Reason #4: No similar properties to yours on their books

Another sign that you might need to change estate agents is if they don’t have similar properties to yours on their books.

You can find this out from a quick Rightmove search or by looking on your agent’s website.

Rightmove search guide. 1. Find your listing on Rightmove. 2. Click on the estate agent logo. 3. Click on "view all properties for sale from [Name of Estate Agent]". 4. Compare your property's price, location, and type to their other listings.

You should be looking out for the following:

• Price brackets. Is your house much more expensive or way cheaper than the average home they currently have on their books?
• Types of properties. What types of properties is your current agent listing? Do they have lots of 2-bed terraced properties on their books, whereas yours is a 5-bed detached home?
• Location. Are most of their listings located in one specific area, and is your home within this radius?

Is your property way more expensive, much cheaper or in a completely different location than their other listings? If so, it’s unlikely they’ll have buyers on their books that might be interested in your property.

Top tip: Ideally, you want to be with an estate agent that has lots of “hot buyers”. This means an agent who has recently sold similar properties to yours close by in a similar price bracket.

That estate agent is more likely to have interested buyers on their books who narrowly missed out and are looking for similar properties in your area.

Reason #5: Not being proactive

Momentum is a key ingredient for a successful, fast home sale.

One of the biggest issues that can stall a sale is having an agent that is not proactive.

To help you figure out if your agent is one of the proactive ones, you should ask yourself the following questions:

1. Did they provide comparables in their initial valuation?
   ‍A proactive agent won’t just value your property at the price you want to hear (as they know this will just lead to price reductions and drag out your sale). They’ll provide comparables showing other properties that are priced well and selling in your area to back up their valuation.
2. Are they reporting and interpreting viewing feedback?
   ‍You should be receiving detailed feedback from each of your viewings. The agent should not just regurgitate what the prospective buyer has said. They should also interpret their feedback and suggest solutions.
3. Are they responding to initial feedback or lack thereof?
   A proactive agent will be responsive if there is an initial lack of interest or viewing requests. They’ll potentially suggest getting new photos to refresh your listing or a price-reduction if this seems to be the limiting factor. This will move your property into a new price bracket and give them the chance to proactively work a new set of buyers on their books.
4. Are they contacting prospective buyers and cross-selling?
   Proactive agents will be contacting all the prospective buyers on their books. Plus, they should be cross selling your home at viewings of other properties in a similar price bracket.

Having a proactive agent on your side can be an absolute game changer when it comes to your house sale. If your agent is not offering up any solutions or is practically ghosting you, it’s probably time to consider switching things up.

Top tip: Agents will often lose interest in a property if it’s been on their books for months. Switching agents will make your house “new” and exciting again with a different team of people.

2. At what stage in the process should you change estate agents?

The ideal time to change estate agents would be 8 weeks after instruction.

Often, the writing is already on the wall at this stage…

If they’ve not been able to generate a steady stream of viewings and are impossible to get hold of, it’s unlikely their service is going to miraculously change in the coming months.

However, the soonest you can change estate agents is around 16 weeks in most cases. This is because many estate agent contracts have a tie-in period of around 4 months.

A tie-in period (aka an “exclusivity” or “minimum contract period”) prevents you from terminating the contract for a specific period. It gives that agent the exclusive right to try and sell your property within that time.

You should check your contract to see what your tie-in period is and speak to your agent to see if they’d be willing to waive this for you.

It can be possible to get out of your estate agent contract early, but it’s not straight-forward or guaranteed.  We’ll have useful guides coming soon to help you try and do this.

Top tip: It’s so important to do your research and choose your agent wisely before signing any contracts! You don’t want to find yourself locked into a 5-month contract with a poor-quality agent.

3. When should you not change estate agents?

Unfortunately, bad things can happen when you try to sell a house. Buyers change their minds, properties sit on the market with no viewings, and nearly a third of all house sales fall through.

It’s easy to jump to conclusions and blame the agent when something goes wrong.

However, it is important to look at the bigger picture. It might not always be the agent’s fault.

You should consider the following things before switching agents:

• Have they put together a great listing with professional pictures?
• Are they giving you lots of updates and feedback?
• Do they have good reviews?
• Are they easy to get hold of?
• Are they a local agent rather than an online agent?
• Do they have similar properties to yours on their books that are marked “under offer” or “Sold STC”?

If they’re ticking most of these boxes, they might actually be the estate agents you want on your side.

Top tip: If your property is over-priced and the agent is giving you lots of proof that this is the case, changing agent is unlikely to help. None of them have a magic wand.

4. Consider alternative selling methods before changing estate agents…

If you’re considering changing estate agents, it could be a good time to explore other selling options…

According to Zoopla, the average estate agent sale takes nearly 6 months! And if you’re thinking about switching agents, that basically puts you back to square one.

If you want, or need, a faster than average home sale, there are quicker, easier, and more convenient ways to sell your house.

You can explore alternative selling methods and find out if they’re right for you by taking our free quiz.

Simply click on the button below to discover your ideal selling method based on your priorities, property, and timeframes…